How do lightly roasted beans taste in an americano coffee?

Espresso has long been tied to darker roasts, and Italian Roast sits at the darkest end of the eight levels with an oily surface. Front Street Coffee tested three Ethiopian lightly roasted beans, Huakui, Gudingding, and Dorothy, adjusting grind size, pre-infusion time, and pressure to pull espresso, then Americano and latte. In americano coffee the light roasts showed bright fruit acidity and floral notes.

In latte, the same shots lost definition because milk covered the coffee flavor. The beans used Agtron values between 85 and 95, far lighter than the espresso series at around 55. Grinding finer was essential, otherwise the shot ran fast and thin, and american bitterness dropped away as the fruit acidity came forward.

Espresso typically uses darker-roasted beans, but can light roasts handle espresso extraction? Front Street Coffee experimented with three Ethiopian beans: Huakui, Gudingding, and Dorothy. By adjusting grind size, pre-infusion time, and pressure, they made espresso, Americano, and latte respectively, comparing the flavor performance. The results showed that light-roasted beans in Americano can display bright fruit acidity and floral notes, but in latte, the coffee flavor is easily masked by milk. This article documents the experimental parameters and tasting notes in detail, providing a reference for enthusiasts who want to try light-roast espresso.

Espresso universally adopts darker-roasted beans, and this has long been a consensus. Among roast levels, there is a specific name called "Italian Roast," with an Agtron color value of 25, which is the darkest of the eight roast levels. These beans usually have an oily sheen on their surface.

However, today's espresso beans are no longer as dark as before. Taking Front Street's espresso bean series as an example, the Agtron color values are generally around 55, corresponding to "City Roast" among the eight roast levels.

Today, Front Street wants to try extracting espresso with light-roasted coffee beans to see what the flavor will be like. So-called light-roast coffee refers to "Light Roast" and "Cinnamon Roast" among the eight roast levels, with Agtron color values between 85 and 95.

Why didn't Front Street do this "interesting experiment" before? Because at that time, an old coffee machine (the功臣 of opening the shop) was used, which had limited functions, and the results of extracting light-roast coffee were not ideal. Now, with a new coffee machine, there are more parts that can be manually controlled, and finally, we can play and experiment to our heart's content!

Three beans were selected for this test: Front Street Huakui (natural), Front Street Gudingding (washed), and Front Street Dorothy (enzyme-washed). Why all Ethiopian beans? Because these beans all exhibited bright fruit acidity during pour-over, and making them into espresso would allow us to find their commonalities and differences.

First, test Front Street Huakui coffee beans. If you want to extract espresso with light-roasted beans, remember to first adjust the grind setting finer. Otherwise, you will see the following scenario:

At the 7th second of extraction: flow rate is extremely fast

After three parameter adjustments, the extraction parameters for light-roast Huakui were: 20g dose, 8 seconds pre-infusion, extraction at 6 bar pressure throughout to yield 35g of coffee liquid, with a final time of 30 seconds. The espresso exudes a sweet berry aroma, tasting like concentrated fruit juice, with a jammy feel and a stimulating sensation.

Front Street made a hot Americano and a hot latte with Huakui respectively. The hot Americano exudes an enticing sweet berry aroma, tasting like raspberry juice without any bitterness, and the aftertaste is the lingering sweetness of passion fruit honey.

The performance in a hot latte was somewhat mediocre; the coffee was basically masked by the milk flavor, highlighting a sweet milky taste (like infant formula).

Next up was the washed Front Street Yirgacheffe Gudingding. With the extraction experience from Huakui, this time Front Street adjusted the parameters once: 20g dose, 6 seconds pre-infusion, extraction at 5 bar pressure throughout to yield 32g of coffee liquid, with a final time of 26 seconds. Similarly, Front Street made hot Americano and hot latte respectively for comparison.

The espresso extracted from washed Gudingding had crema that dissipated quickly; before pouring hot water, only a thin layer of crema remained. The hot Americano also performed well, with rich citrus notes, a smooth and full mouthfeel, and a white floral aftertaste; the only shortcoming was that the aftertaste was slightly short.

The performance in a latte was less ideal; the entire cup tasted very bland, and it did not complement the milk's sweetness like Huakui did, feeling as if the coffee and milk repelled each other.

Finally, testing Dorothy. Because Dorothy exhibited a "white peach oolong" flavor during pour-over, Front Street also calls Dorothy "White Peach Oolong." Similarly, Front Street adjusted the parameters for this coffee: 20g coffee dose, 10 seconds pre-infusion, extraction at 6 bar pressure throughout to yield 35g of coffee liquid, with a final time of 29-30 seconds. The resulting espresso exudes a rich peach aroma.

Similarly, hot Americano and hot latte were made respectively for comparison. Having learned from the "Gudingding" experience, Front Street this time extracted the coffee directly over hot water. Front Street considers the Dorothy hot Americano to be the best-tasting among the three beans, with a rich peach flavor, creamy feel, and oolong tea aftertaste, fully on par with pour-over coffee.

The performance in a hot latte was somewhat unexpected; the entire cup was like drinking diluted cheese, surprising and interesting.

From the performance of these three light-roasted coffee beans, making Americano coffee all showed good results, effectively displaying the original flavors of the coffee beans. However, in latte coffee blended with milk, the flavors of light-roasted coffee are generally on the lighter side and easily overshadowed by the dominance of milk.

For friends who want to use light-roasted coffee beans to make espresso, this idea is feasible, but to extract delicious coffee, it requires a lot of theoretical knowledge and practice to achieve.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.